Cuthbert Dube still faces prosecution

FORMER Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) boss Cuthbert Dube and a coterie of his hangers-on accused of looting the health insurer are not off the hook yet, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) said yesterday.

BY XOLISANI NCUBE

Zacc’s interventions come in the wake of reports that Dube had been absolved of any wrongdoing following an extensive investigation by the corruption busters. Farai Mashonganyika-Chinyani, Zacc commissioner for education and public awareness, flanked by the commissioner responsible for Investigations, Goodson Nguni, told a news conference that Dube and other unnamed senior managers were still under probe for various allegations.

“As Zacc, we acknowledge that indeed public funds were abused at PSMAS, that is why investigations are ongoing. Zacc is going to conduct a systems audit at this institution and investigate how PSMAS formulates and adopts its
policies,” Chinyani said.

The anti-graft body said so far, it had a number of complaints against PSMAS and although no one had been charged yet, it was preparing to do so soon.

Reports last week claimed the commission had cleared Dube of any wrongdoing in relations to his alleged plunder of PSMAS funds when he was at the helm of the health insurer. Dube reportedly took home a monthly salary of over $500 000 in what became known as the Salarygate scandal that broke out in late 2013. But Chinyani and Nguni said at the time the commission wrote the letter to the PSMAS board chair where it stated that Dube had not committed a crime, there was no evidence to prosecute him, but now, more information was being received by the commission with regard to the alleged abuse of office, fraud and money-laundering at PSMAS.

“We have allegations of money-laundering, abuse of office to abuse of public funds at PSMAS. The letter which was sent to the PSMAS chairperson was in relation to specific issues, but we have a lot of things that we are looking at when talking about PSMAS,” Nguni said.

Dube was forced out of PSMAS at the height of the infamous Salarygate scandal which later claimed the scalps of senior officials at parastatals and local authorities. Dube claimed he had board approval for all his actions.